Back in the 1990s, Donald Trump was "a private citizen who was friendly with the Clintons," and that's why the presumptive nominee defended then-President Bill Clinton against some of the allegations his campaign is using now to attack Hillary Clinton, Trump adviser and special counsel Michael Cohen said Tuesday.

"He was trying to protect a friend, all right?" Cohen said during a heated interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on the "New Day" program. "Now, it's a different game. It's 2016, he is the Republican presidential nominee."

Cuomo, though, argued that the argument makes Trump "look like a hypocrite," given the string of attacks against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton that claim she has been an "enabler" for her husband.

On Monday, Trump's camp released an Instagram video that included the voices of two women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault.

But in 1998, Trump had told a Fox News interviewer that Clinton was a "victim" of "unattractive women," including former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, reports The Daily Beast.

Cohen, though, said that Trump is now "giving the facts," and the campaign will not be addressing his 1990s comments because they do not now matter, as the interview occurred while Trump "was a private individual."

"So you tell the truth when you're politician and lie when you're a private individual?" Cuomo shot back.

"He was standing up for a man who he considered to be a friend at the time," Cohen commented, and continued that Hillary Clinton, "the great enabler" had called the women involved in the scandals with her husband "the worst."

"She is the enabler in chief and he happens to be the sexist," Cohen said of the Clintons. "So instead, she needs to win the women's vote. That's what she needs. She is not going to win the men's vote.

"She needs to go after the women's vote. She is not going to be able to do that if Donald Trump is not portrayed by the Clinton campaign as a sexist. So she is deflecting."

Meanwhile, none of the attacks would be happening if Clinton had not accused Trump of being a sexist and a misogynist, Cohen said.

"Donald Trump is a counter-puncher. Had she not accused him of a being a sexist, this ad would not have come out," Cohen told Cuomo.

Back in the 1990s, Donald Trump was "a private citizen who was friendly with the Clintons," and that's why the presumptive nominee defended then-President Bill Clinton against some of the allegations his campaign is using now to attack Hillary Clinton...